Skip to main content

There are Good Men

There are good men in the world. There's my father. He invests in the lives of his children, plays with his grandchildren, and talks to people at church--friends and visitors alike. There's my brothers. They work hard to support their families. They are good dads. There's my first boss who taught me how to work hard and how to lead in the work place by giving clear instruction and by doing the jobs that other people don't want to do. There are my elders who pray about my questions before providing clear, biblical instruction. 

There are good men in the world, and the ones who do the majority of day-to-day life with me are married to my friends. 

It is a great kindness of the Lord that we do not do life alone, and it is a great kindness that, in the church, we get to be family. My friend's husband is also my brother, and our relationship is that of healthy siblings. The faith-brothers in my life are protective and kind, they dish out and accept teasing, they do not make me feel or appear small or dumb or less-than--either in public or private. When we disagree they do it graciously and respectfully. When I need them, they are there. 

There is safety for the woman who marries a good man, but there is also safety for the single woman who is surrounded by good men. In the true family of God, there is protection for the biological sister and for the sister in Christ. God puts the solitary in a home (Psalm 68:6), and I am grateful that both my birth family and church family contain good men. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Your Purpose?

 A couple weeks ago, a young woman asked me, "what is your purpose?" it kind of threw me off. Ok, it really threw me off. It seemed a bit touché to say "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" when she was looking for specifics. And I get why she's asking. My life does seem pretty random. Thirty-two years old, working on my BA, teaching music part time, working at a coffee shop part time, and living at least an hour from my closest family member. On paper it looks...well...it looks random. I get it. Kind of hard to pull a purpose out of the randomness.  I was talking to the Lord about it because sometimes, even for myself, the person living this life, it's hard to find a specific purpose in the randomness. Sometimes I wonder,  when I get to Heaven if I'm  going to have anything to offer God, if while other people show up with their kids, I'm going to hold out empty hands and say "it's just me." I mean, if He wants soldiers to defeat spiri...

Two Worlds, One Family

After reading that title, are you singing the Phil Collins song from Tarzan? I was. In my head. During prayer meeting. The theme for prayer that evening was the 3rd commandment; you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain . We bowed our heads and began praying around the circle. My dear friend sat beside me and prayed for her children and the children of our church. She prayed that they would never a know a day not loving the name of the Lord, that they would cling to Him and honour Him all the days of their lives. I went next. I prayed for my coworkers, so many of them living far, far from God, so many enslaved to sin. I prayed that they would know Jesus, honestly ask Him to forgive them, and then live the rest of their lives loving His name and bringing that Name glory. The same desire spurred our prayers, but the places we dwell in had a huge effect on how we prayed. And that's when that song from my childhood came to mind. The truth is that we are one family, my f...

Wasted Gifts? Wasted Time?

You know how you can read the Bible twice, ten times, a hundred times and yet there's still something you haven't noticed or thought about before? That's basically my relationship with 1 Samuel 16:12-23. This is where Samuel anoints David to be king (first he had to meet all David's other brothers because David was the youngest so he was out taking care of the sheep). After the family dinner with Samuel, the text shifts back to King Saul. Because King Saul had disobeyed God, God had removed His Spirit from Saul and sent an evil spirit to terrorize him. In order to sooth the king's suffering soul, Saul's servants go out looking for someone who can play music to make him feel better.  There's a lot to think about in these short verses but the verse that struck me is verse 18.  Then one of the young men said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a might man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handso...